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The ESD Alliance Export Committee includes standing representation from ARM, Cadence, Synopsys, Mentor Graphics and ASML, and is open to participation from all member companies.

The Export Committee represents the EDA industry in Washington, particularly with the agencies overseeing export regulations. Our goal is to educate the agencies about our products and how they are classified against the Commerce Control List, to ensure the correct level of export controls are applied to our products and technology.

EDA and Export Regulations

Today under the US regulations, EDA is controlled under anti-terrorism restrictions, meaning that we can distribute our products to all destinations, other than sanctioned parties, denied parties or to end-users or end-uses subject to general or specific country sanctions.

A significant aspect of this is the US Commerce Department’s ruling on encryption, which exempts the following from control under the encryption classification:

Encryption and/or decryption for protection of libraries, design attributes, or associated data for the design of semiconductor devices or integrated circuits;

This exemption saves SIGNIFICANT efforts – avoiding licensing and reporting requirements to the government that would be required without this exemption.

Export Resources

We have recorded several seminars, available to ESD Alliance member companies, which provide you with an overview of U.S. export regulations and how they apply to the EDA industry and your business:

The current hot-topic is sanctions, primarily the US and EU sanctions placed on Russia after the invasion of Crimea. This has affected the EDA Industry as many electronics and systems companies who purchase EDA tools are subject to the sanctions, due to being directly sanctioned, owned or controlled by a sanctioned organization, or in business to support the Russian military. If your company has a European presence, it’s important to understand how to comply with local regulations as well as those of the US. [Additional information.]

Key Activities

The committee continues to represent the EDA industry in Washington. There have been attempts by certain government agencies to classify design-for-manufacturing elements of EDA as restricted technology. To-date we have defended our position, and we remain diligent in responding to these proposals.

In addition our goal is to inform the industry about ongoing export reform efforts, as well as provide guidance on compliance. We hold seminars and webinars on export topics, and we welcome suggestions of topics for future seminars and webinars.

The June, 2017 issue of the ESD Alliance newsletter included a supplement highlighting some of the Export Committee’s activities, including two testimonials from members who received significant guidance from the committee. Read the supplement!